Skill Set: Intro to Machines and Mechanisms

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

This month, for our Mechanics Skill Set, we’re happy to have our friend Dustyn Roberts joining us again to help out with the theme. We’ll be excerpting from Dustyn’s book, Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists, doing a giveaway of signed copies of her book, and she’ll be writing some original content for us.

Today, we thought we’d kick things off with a chapter from Making Things Move, Chapter 1: Introduction to Machines and Mechanisms. Dustyn was kind enough to allow us to offer a free PDF download of the entire chapter. It’ll give you both a good idea of what her book is about, and it serves as a great introduction to our skill set and what we’ll be covering over the month. It covers six simple machines (levers, pulleys, wheels and axles, inclined planes/wedges, screws, and gears), their main uses, and it even includes a project on making a Rube Goldberg breakfast machine.

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.